Despite my best efforts last week I surpassed my target of 8 hours by a little more than planned. A combination of good weather, fresh legs and a good attitude resulted in getting into double digits and finishing the week over 10 hours.
Now in the big scheme of things that in itself is not a huge deal, but what it does show is my body is almost pre-programmed for an early season race.
The totals for the week were
Swimming 6,250 metres
Biking 60 miles
Ran 40 miles
There were a couple of hard efforts in there, but by and large it was just some good solid workouts. One of the runs was a good tempo run – 10 kms with an average pace of 6:37 / mile. I still believe that for me to work my Ironman times down I am going to have to capitalize on my running strength. Over the three races I have done, I have not felt that I have been able to really push on the run. In 2008 at Arizona there was no opportunity as the conditions put me in survival mode, but last year at IM CDA I should have been able to do better.
This week will be a cut back week to try and compensate for last week. I will still want to keep the running up around 40 miles since it looks like Red Deer is going to be my spring race in May.
Have a great week!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Optimistic
For some reason, I have a cautious sense of optimism about the upcoming race season. Even though I haven’t really mapped out what I am going to do specifically, I have a good feeling about 2010.
I seem to have got off to a good start in my training and feel like I am starting at a new level. While I have taken no discernible break in working out, I have tried to not get too far ahead of myself and plunge into 10 – 12 hour weeks right off the get go. Right now I want to stick around the 8 to 10 hour range and not get myself burned out. At this level I will have great fitness and work on skill development a bit more.
On the swimming front I have been concentrating less on stroke count and more on propulsion. It’s great to have 15 stroke count but if you’re covering the 100 metres in 2:10 there is probably an opportunity there. So with less focus on the stroke count and greater emphasis on the pull and rotation I have seen an improvement in my overall times.
With the bike I have been working on finding that sweet spot between gearing and cadence. Last season I had a break through experimenting with all the gears on my bike. Cyclists tend to get caught up in what people around them are doing rather than paying attention to what they are doing. There are some people that can really hammer in the big gears but if I am beside them in a smaller gear, that works doesn’t it?
While running is certainly my strongest of the three events I have never felt that I have been able to capitalize on it in the longer events. Largely I think it is mental rather than physical. In the longer events, you are constantly afraid of finding yourself curled up in the fetal position on the side of the road because you were too aggressive. While that is a risk, you still can’t hold back too much. Finding that middle ground is something I still haven’t found and as much as anything it will take a leap of faith that my conditioning will get me through.
So this week of training will keep at a touch over 8 hours again. Still feeling good and I have no reason to add any more on right now.
Have a great day!
I seem to have got off to a good start in my training and feel like I am starting at a new level. While I have taken no discernible break in working out, I have tried to not get too far ahead of myself and plunge into 10 – 12 hour weeks right off the get go. Right now I want to stick around the 8 to 10 hour range and not get myself burned out. At this level I will have great fitness and work on skill development a bit more.
On the swimming front I have been concentrating less on stroke count and more on propulsion. It’s great to have 15 stroke count but if you’re covering the 100 metres in 2:10 there is probably an opportunity there. So with less focus on the stroke count and greater emphasis on the pull and rotation I have seen an improvement in my overall times.
With the bike I have been working on finding that sweet spot between gearing and cadence. Last season I had a break through experimenting with all the gears on my bike. Cyclists tend to get caught up in what people around them are doing rather than paying attention to what they are doing. There are some people that can really hammer in the big gears but if I am beside them in a smaller gear, that works doesn’t it?
While running is certainly my strongest of the three events I have never felt that I have been able to capitalize on it in the longer events. Largely I think it is mental rather than physical. In the longer events, you are constantly afraid of finding yourself curled up in the fetal position on the side of the road because you were too aggressive. While that is a risk, you still can’t hold back too much. Finding that middle ground is something I still haven’t found and as much as anything it will take a leap of faith that my conditioning will get me through.
So this week of training will keep at a touch over 8 hours again. Still feeling good and I have no reason to add any more on right now.
Have a great day!
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